David A. Muller, of Ithaca, and grad student Pinshane Huang, of Cayuga Heights, hold a 3-D model of the ultra-thin glass that earned them a spot in the 2014 Guinness Book of World Records.

Written by

D.W. Nutt
Gannett

All it took was a single molecule to land Cornell researchers in the Guinness Book of World Records.

University scientists, led by David A. Muller, of Ithaca, in collaboration with the University of Ulm in Germany, were making graphene, a form of bonded carbon atoms, when an air leak caused a chain reaction that produced a "muck" on the material, which, once examined, turned out to be the world's thinnest piece of glass.

Scientists have long struggled to understand glass because it behaves like a solid but, at the same time, resembles a liquid. By accidentally producing a glass that is only two ...